The RUC has landed

When I decided to return to my home in the country I found that the old house had really become an ‘old house’. I was determined to fix her up and bring her back to her former glory. Once the walls were down and the irreparable damage uncovered from white ants and the last cyclone, I realised she had to come down.

Coincidence is a beautiful thing. A friend of a friend knew of my disappointment and found that an old Rugby Union Club in the heart of Cairns was going to be demolished. This Rugby Union Club (which has come to be affectionately known as The RUC) is over 100 years old. After a building inspection, the RUC was deemed to be in structurally sound condition. It had been sitting on this site for about 50 years and before that had been a homestead in Smithfield (one of the original houses in the region). The design of the RUC is Federation Queenslander, which was very popular in the tropics pre WWI.

We were told we could have the RUC at no cost to move onto the farm.

When I say no cost – I’m not saying this has been a cheap exercise. Relatively speaking, it wasn’t overly expensive to move, however (apart from hiring a company to move it – Miles & Co who did a brilliant job) there were a lot of hidden costs. Fees to the regional council for inspections, applications and approvals, architectural drawings, energy efficiency ratings, clean-up of old site, preparation of new site – they all add up.

There were also a number of applications that needed to be made to the police (road escort), Road traffic authority (bridges and traffic lights), Queensland rail (house to go over tracks) and Ergon Energy (house to go under powerlines). Getting all these together was like waiting for the planets to align. Each of these applications only last for several days and (for example) if the police were unavailable on the day, our application to the RTA would expire and we would have to re-apply.

All up, getting the applications and ticking the boxes to move the RUC took four months. I’m thinking it will be another two months before the house is ready for me to move in. I’m putting a new roof on it, redoing the floors, putting in a new kitchen and bathroom and adding another set of stairs.

There’s still some work to do – but she’s here now. Let the fun begin!

Sorry if I’ve been absent from your posts for a while – but I’ve been a little busy 😀

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Best news here, Dianne – so glad for the RUC to have made its way home!! I really like it – it must be a cracker of a place and I can imagine how cool this will be when you finish renovating!!! Don’t worry about reading blogs…keep your eyes on the prize. 🙂

Thank you, Sheila! It’s been such a busy time 😯 It’ going to look so beautiful when it’s finished. I was a bit hesitant to put the pics up as it is now still on the truck because it looks a bit battered, but thought it would make a great beginning for ‘before’ and ‘after’ shots! 😀

At last! A somewhat dilapidated beauty, in need of some TLC, but it’s there and it’s yours and it must feel absolutely wonderful. Good luck with your new home, and don’t forget to bury a good luck charm somewhere beneath it.

Bless you! Four months for RUC to arrive… And, good luck on the two months for roof, kitchen, bathroom and flooring!!! The big upside: it looks beautiful and just perfect setting there among the trees! The other upside, you’re going to have a genuine ‘blast’ doing the needed work…

Thank you so much, Billy Ray 😀 I know I’m being very hopeful with getting the rest done, but I’ve got my three kids and their partners arriving to stay for a week in mid-June so it’s going to be like one of those TV shows where everything has to be completed by the end of the show! LOL 🙂

Thank you so much for the congratulations! It’s such a huge project but it will all be worth it in the end. I absolutely love restoring antiques and I’m sure this is the biggest one I’ll ever work on! 😀

Fantastic to see the pics of the old place (and sad, because I understand your connection, I also feel a strong connection to places and houses, like *really* strong as if they are people. Sometimes, they are better than people) and exciting to see the new RUC in place. I want to hug myself with anticipation that we get to share the journey in some small way, through your blog. Good luck with everything!

This is such a beautiful comment, Jenny, now I want to hug you! 😀 Its going to be an amazing journey and I love sharing with you. I hadn’t noticed until I was in there yesterday and wiped the ‘bar’ and kitchen benches that they are all made of a beautiful rich red wood (before it was moved they had a thick layer of dust on them and I hadn’t wiped them). I’ll have to ask someone who knows more about wood than I do because I think it may be red cedar! WOW!

Now I want to hug you too! I find your blog very inspiring and have mentioned it on my personal blog if you’d like to check it out (diff to my wordpress – I’ve been blogging elsewhere since 2005 ‘anonymouse-ly’) but last year, yours and one other blog that I found, are two online spaces that I just adore and both have to do with a vivid sense of place and people connected to their location… post can be found at: http://melbgirltakeonthings.blogspot.com.au/

Been waiting patiently to see this photo!! Looking good already, Dianne. I know you are partially relieved. Can’t believe how much paperwork was required. You know, this could be a really good TV show. Well, we’ll just watch it from here, I guess.

It’s kept me very busy, Deborah 😉 And the fun part will be the restoration. But now that it’s on the block I don’t have to check the ‘long term’ weather forecast anymore! The monsoon season has stayed away so far, but now it rain as much as it likes! 😀

So glad to hear the RUC is all there. After living in our 1923 converted 6 room school house for 6 years now I’m so glad to hear that others share the passion of re-tasking grand old buildings. I’m sure that all of the effort and cost yo put into restoring her will be an ongoing source of joy as you enjoy living in her. Good on You!
And by the bye…. hang in there — it sometimes seems that old buildings are attention hounds and just when you think you’ve done all you need to do — she’ll start feeling neglected and give you yet another thing to re-do/fix/correct.
Olde Things demand owners with great staying power — just like demanding lovers. 🙂

Thank you for the warning, Peter. From someone who has been there, it’s important for me to know these things 😀 I wiped the inches of dust off the kitchen benches and ‘bar’ yesterday afternoon to find they are (what I think may be) red cedar. Now that has got me VERY excited! 😀

How absolutely right you are, Theo! Particularly when the petrol tank was still there when it was supposed to be moved a month ago and the truck had to squeeze it’s way around it to get the house into place – it was very nerve-wracking! 😉

It was a huge project, Tim. I’m still not sure how it happened either, there were so many things to consider and anything could have gone horribly wrong at any time. Luckily, it eventually went smoothly 😀

I love the RUC 🙂 Not taking anything way from people who whack up new houses from new materials (I’m sure they love them) but old, recycled is the way to go. The RUC has a story! And, you guys are writing the next chapters. As much as you love her, she’ll love you back. But as Peter says she may be a quirky demanding mistress – she’ll love and and pay you back in spades. I know, we have one who the G.O. restored from a state where most sane people would have demolished and started again – we call her the Grand Old Lady. Your kids & their partners will love the RUC too… and everyone else, such is the charm of an old house 🙂

I absolutely love old houses because they have so much history and character. The Grand Old Lady sounds fabulous and it makes me a little sad when people just knock down old houses because they have so much character and life about them!

The RUC certainly has a story and you can feel it when you walk into the place – it’s pure history 😀

That’s so right, Justin! Now it’s there I don’t check the weather forecast every day to see if the monsoon is moving in! (Actually, I think the monsoon has gone south this year and hit south QLD and North NSW!). I can just potter around now and decide what I want to go where instead of having to look at the paper plans and ‘visualize’ 😉

How on earth did that come in two pieces? If that is a semi-truck, then the RUC is huge. Judging from the fact that you are adding another set of stairs, there seems to be tons of room for a visiting Kozo. 🙂
Congratulations, Dianne. In a few years, those 4 months will be forgotten when you enjoy the karma of recycling, re-tasking, and re-loving. {{{hugs]}} Kozo

Thank you, Kozo! I always love waking up in the morning to see you’ve hugged me! It makes my day 😀 The house is rather large – and a lot of that is veranda which is great because I’m such an ‘outside’ person! The new stairs are going to go at the front from the veranda gate, coming down then splitting off into two (apparently they call them butterfly stairs) 😉

I’m so glad you got a smile out of this, Mikey. It’s great to see old things restored and not just dumped like a lot people do nowdays. The building is beautiful and once she’s restored, I’m pretty sure she’ll look spectacular 😀

I thought you might be busy with the moving of the RUC because it’s been a couple of days I haven’t heard from you. I’m so happy the “eagle has landed” and from now on, you’ll be making your new nest. Send lots of pictures of the renovation. Before and After pictures are always fun. Congrats.
Barbara

I loved it from the moment I saw it (houses sometimes do that!) and I knew it would be perfect for the farm. It fits in with surrounding area and I think it’s actually happy to be there instead of being demolished! (I could have sworn it ‘smiled’ when it was put into place) lol 😉

This is just so very cool. How awesome to have such a unique and interesting home, and you get to add your own touches too! I wish you the strength and fortitude it takes to get through a ‘reno’ and the health and happiness to enjoy it! Bravo!

Oh crap you have you work cut out for you honey, all the bureaucratic bullshite one has to go through just to move a pub/house for ffs. I wish you well and fully understand why you are busy! A work in progress to be sure to be sure 😉 xxxx

The bureaucratic bullshite had everyone on tender hooks! I also had to put down a $15,000 assurance with govt. and they don’t give that back until the house is inspected and deemed livable and the site where it’s come from is cleaned up! They sure know how to squeeze every cent out of you! 😉

They had to cut it in half, Janna because the Road Traffic Authority deemed it too big for one move. So the first half came Thursday and the second half Friday. All up it’s probably about 12 miles from point A to point B! Absolutely amazing that we needed so many approvals fir such a short distance! 😯

Oh it will be so beautiful when it’s done! It’s the perfect home for the location. I’m looking forward to seeing the “after’ shots. I can’t believe you had to pay to take your home under power lines and over railway tracks, and with QR being privatised we can’t even blame “Can-do” for that one!

LOL! There is a ‘cost’ in every part of the process. I even had to put up a $15,000 assurance to the govt. that I won’t get back until they make sure it is all legit and the house is ready to live in. Thank god they didn’t take out a traffic light on their way through! There were so many things that could have gone wrong, but didn’t 😀

I knew you’d love this! You would have seen some beautiful Queenslanders in your travels 😉 I’ve been looking at every one I can find so I can get the colours just right. At the moment I’m thinking ‘mountain blue’ and cream. The handrails were originally that colour because I can see it through the peeling paint. I can’t wait to bring her back to her former glory 😀

Thank you, Char. It’s a huge project because old houses need things that the new ones don’t (they’re very fussy!) I’m hoping that a new floor, roof and paint job will keep her happy for the next few years! 😀

Yay! That is so exciting, it is really happening 🙂 I can’t wait to see the finished pictures of you sitting in front with a glass of wine. In the meanwhile, best of luck with the second (third/fourth?!) phase of the RUC transformation.

It’s been a fabulous experience! I wouldn’t want to go through it again, but I’ve learned so much (and that’s what life is all about!) It would have made a great reality TV show with all the ups and downs, but I’m writing everything up to do a complete start to finish post one day for those who are thinking of doing something similar 😉

Wow, that seems like such an overwhelming project but you seem to have tackled it with (relative) ease. My goodness, I’m faced with choosing a paint color and I over-think it to the point of doing nothing. Glad your home is coming along…it will be so nice when you finally get to move in!

It is a big project, Janna, and a big house as I’ve come to realise. The beauty of it is, is a simple design and that makes it a lot easier to do the floors, roof, painting,etc). But I have to choose a colour too, and that’s something I may be over-thinking as well! 😉

What a fantastic story! Keeping a beautiful old building alive is a great thing to do. It reminds me of when my dad bought a hundred year old house in Lismore NSW and did it up over 6 years. Bought for 13,000 sold for around 80,000 and loved and lived in for many years. I spent most of my teen years there, some great times 🙂

Sorry to go on about myself haha, but your project brings back nice memories 🙂

Good luck with all the repairs and renovations. keep us all abreast of the progress on the house. Oh and be sure to do a little irrigation around the house if it’s in a wet area, just a few trenches around, filled with rocks and gravel should do the trick! Bit of clever drainage will keep you and your place bone dry.

I’m so glad this project brings back nice memories for you, Rohan! YAY!

Irrigation is going in (the rocks and gravel etc). We used to live in the same spot in the old cane cutters barracks so we know where the water runs (after a few floods!) This one is going to be on high posts and I’ll have to get used to that because I’m afraid of heights 😯

They’re ‘pulling it together’ today (it came in two separate pieces) and are going to put the old roof back on while we’re waiting for the new one. We had a huge downpour yesterday and the old place got very soaked on the inside. There may be a cyclone brewing off Mackay, so any roof will be better than none at the moment – just in case it hits us 😀

Interesting, Dianne, when I first looked at the RUC I thought you were taking both levels, not just the top half. It is much more attractive with only the top half! Love it, and I’m so excited for you! 😀

I just read up on the definition of a Queenslander! Interesting and practical reasons for building on “stumps.” I think we could learn something from the Queenslander architectural method here in the deep south! Brilliant!

It really is brilliant and so very simple! They just don’t make them like they used to. When we had the energy rating done, the architect was astounded because of the efficiency of energy. I think the highest rating you can get is 8 and ours was 7.75! Not bad for a house that was built 100 years ago… 😀

Thank you, Lynda. The bottom half was just built in with cement blocks so they all had to be knock down. But it will go on high stumps on our block so we can always build in the bottom half when we’re ready (hubby is already calling the downstairs part the ‘man cave’) 😀